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Meet Mathis James Reed

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 08/24/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Originally released in 1958 as Vee-Jay LP #1004, "I'm Jimmy Reed" was Jimmy Reed's debut album.His good-natured two-string boogie had already allowed him to cross over to the pop charts with the 1957 single "Honest I Do", the leadoff track on this album, and one of Reed's best and best-known songs, and Jimmy Reed would go on to outsell everybody from Muddy Waters to Howlin' Wolf (!).

Reed is backed by men like John Brim and Eddie Taylor, and a certain Albert Nelson (better known as Albert King) plays the - well, the drums, actually. Albert King started out as John Brim's drummer. And while Jimmy Reed's easily digestible and extremely accessible brand of blues certainly lacks the power and intensity of the music of Elmore James, Muddy Waters, or Howlin' Wolf, his best songs have long since become an integral part of the fabric of the blues, and everybody from Elvis Presley to The Rolling Stones have had a go at one or more of them.

If you just want one Jimmy Reed-album for your collection, go for Rhino's single-disc "Blues Masters - The Best Of Jimmy Reed", or Recall Records' double-disc compilation "Big Boss Man". But if you want to dig deeper, all of Collectables' excellent reissues of Reed's original LPs can be recommended, and this is one of the best, featuring classics like "Honest I Do", "You Got Me Dizzy", "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby", and "You Don't Have To Go", as well as number of lesser-known but generally very good songs."